The power of elements
by lizaYoung
Summary: Mythology becomes reality for the members of the Legacy, as Philip one morning comes to Angel Island in an absolutely wretched condition. Derek, his daughter Gina and their friends find themselves facing the task to stop an age-old power...


This story takes place about half a year before Reed Horton, member of the San Francisco Legacy, leaves the Legacy forever.

One person of my story I've got to explain more in detail:

Gina Rayne: Gina is my own invention. She's the eighteen-year-old, illegitimate daughter of Preceptor Derek Rayne. She's the result of a one-night-stand Derek had had with his then girlfriend, who was killed by a demon short time afterward. Derek didn't know that she was pregnant from him at this time. Gina was born on the other side, as to say in the demons' realm, which is the reason why she's half a demon herself. Her mother made it possible to her to return to the normal world and to be raised as the child of a family her mother was friends with. She's got demonic abilities she indeed never uses; she's got visions and the ability to heal just with her hands. For about a year she's now studying medicine at San Francisco University.

The power of elements

Rain! Again!

But well, what would you expect from a November's day? Anyway, Gina's look wandered almost longing to the photograph hanging above her bed; the picture showing herself, her mother and her brother during their last holidays in summer – or better herself and the two persons she had still thought to be her mother and her brother those days. Meanwhile she knew it better. Nevertheless the photograph always motivated her to go on working, when she was close to giving up – working for both her studies and the Legacy, which now formed her new family and the main job of her life.

She hadn't turned back to her notes yet when she was diverted a second time.

"Gina?" the voice of her father Derek made its way to her ear. "Be so kind and come down! We're gettin' a visit."

Gina let her pen sink. A visit? On a Saturday morning half past six? This could only be either a joke or a mistake. She was still thinking about if this was worth interrupting her work when Derek called her a second time, more urgent now. "Gina, please hurry! I'm afraid we're gonna need your help!"

When Derek said they needed her help he mostly meant medical help, and then it must be really important. Derek was preceptor, as to say leader of the legacy, for too long to cause unnecessary panic. He was able to tell very well whether a situation was an emergency or not, and if he rated something as such it was better to believe his assessment.

Gina dropped everything and hurried downstairs.

Derek was already waiting for her. "Guess I have to correct myself", he received his daughter. "_You_'re gettin' a visit."

Now Gina was completely confused. She cast him an irritated glance and opened the entrance door.

The very next moment she thought to get a heart attack. "Oh my god, Philip!" she uttered.

Philip Callahan was catholic priest and member of the Legacy already for a long, long time. Gina and he knew each other for long, but the way he was standing in front of the door now the young woman had never seen him before. His cloths were totally wet, torn and blood-stained; and beneath numerous cuts and lacerations were visible. Two fingers of his right hand were very swollen and colored blue, a reliable sign that they were broken. He seemed completely exhausted, was all of a shake and apparently only hardly able to keep himself standing upright.

"Gina", he uttered with trembling voice. "Gina, I..."

Energetically the young woman raised one hand. "First come in! Then we can talk about ev'rythin'!" She reached out, gripped his arm and pulled him into the corridor; gently, but firmly anyway.

Without any dissent Philip let her carry him into the living room and dropped himself to the sofa.

Gina and Derek, who had been ignored by the young man completely until now, took a seat opposite him.

"Philip, what the hell happened?" Gina asked forcefully.

The young man forced himself to look at her although it was obvious that he would have loved not to, and opened his mouth to answer her question. But he didn't manage. When the memory of what had made him come here came back to him he lost his self-control he had kept so laboriously and was no longer able to hold back the tears.

That he burst into tears so suddenly gave Gina a bigger fright than his sight only moments before at the door. Never before had she seen him crying for, although the young priest was a very sensitive person, he was amazingly strong all the time. Carefully she pushed herself next to him onto the sofa and put her arm reassuringly around his shoulders, trying not to let show how shocked she was by his emotional outburst. He leaned his head to her shoulder, and gently she started to caress him. Neither she nor Derek tried to interrupt him. The both of them knew that the tears would help him get over what he had experienced. Sometime he would be able to talk to them about it.

It took quite a time until he had steadied himself again at least partly.

Gina let him go when she noticed him regaining his composure, slid down from the sofa and knelt down in front of it to examine his injuries. "Take your shirt off and your pants", she asked quietly. "Otherwise I can't treat your wounds."

Without saying a word he fulfilled her request, only his right hand he didn't pull out of the sleeve. He was in bad pain.

Skillfully and very carefully Gina examined the lots of small wounds covering his legs and the upper part of his body. Then she got her bag, a cloth and some water, cleaned the injuries carefully and disinfected them. While doing this she noticed the young man being all of a shake. "Are you cold?" she asked carefully.

He nodded faintly.

"After I've cared for your wounds I'm gonna prepare a bath for you and, most of all, get you dry cloths", she said. "So you'll get a chance to warm yourself up."

A grateful glance was cast her. She realized how tired his eyes appeared. Didn't he sleep at all?, she asked herself, but didn't say it loud. He was not to lose his composure once more. And besides she couldn't help thinking that right now had been the very first time that he had really noticed since he was here.

After having treated the lots of small cuts and lacerations in his skin she turned to his hand, which seemed to be the bigger problem. However, the treating of the two broken fingers turned out to be not that easy for Philip started back every time she touched the hand. Even though he didn't give a single sound Gina could tell that he must be in bad pain. So she first administered a local anesthetic to him to stop the pain to a great extend, what enabled her to splint and bandage his fingers till he was unable to move them any more. Nevertheless she saw that his face had become pale when she looked up at him after the treatment. She sat down next to him and took him in her arms again. The embrace did him good, she noticed, but she felt as well that his skin was icy cold and almost numb from the wet cold having surrounded him obviously for the whole night. His cloths were still dripping wet.

Gina jumped to her feet and hurried out of the room.

Derek had watched the whole procedure silently and without interfering. He knew that he would have disturbed his daughter more than helped her. But inside he again and again shook his head about the intense relationship Gina had with the young preacher – although at the very beginning it had not at all looked as if they would ever get along with each other! And today Gina was the only reason for Philip to come to the Legacy at all. It was her he called when he didn't find a solution to a problem, it was her he asked for help when he wasn't successful in something on his own, it was her he came to when he wasn't well.

Silently the preceptor watched the priest.

Philip was cold. Again and again shivers ran through his body, but he just didn't have the strength to dress up again. Besides he would have needed both hands to do this, and he just lacked the courage to give this a try. His right hand was lying in his lap, and though Gina had given him a painkiller every hasty move of the hand hurt. Just because of this he was sitting almost motionless already since Gina had left the room, his head lowered and wishing to be alone and to be able to hide from everybody else. His thoughts revolved around the last night. He was glad that Gina hadn't insisted in being told about what had happened. The fear the memory caused him was as bad as the one he had felt during the night. Never before had he felt that exposed. At least Derek, who he of course had noticed, accepted that he didn't want to talk to anybody.

As Gina re-entered the room Philip lifted his head. But basically he didn't see her at all. Still he was too shocked to realize anything happening around him really. Only when the young woman carefully put her hand upon his shoulder he was startled from his apathy.

"Come with me!" Gina whispered. "I've prepared a bath for you and got you new cloths. You must warm yourself up."

With shaking knees he got up and followed her to the corridor without saying a word.

Frowning Derek gazed after them.

Gina led Philip to the bathroom and made a move to leave him there. But when she noticed his concerned look she accommodated him a bit saying, "Don't be afraid, nothin' can happen to you here. You're secure here, believe me. But just in case that somethin' should be wrong – I'm in the livin' room, you can call me. I'm gonna hear you, rely on that."

Hesitantly he nodded, again without saying a word. Then he closed the bathroom door behind him, his gesture expressing that he didn't like at all to do this.

Gina returned to her father and sat down on the sofa opposite him sighing.

Sometime they were silent, then Derek said right out of the blue, "What would Philip do without you."

Gina gave a faint smile. "I'm sorry for him."

"Did he tell you somethin'?"

"No. He didn't say a single word for the whole time. I'm a bit worried about that, to be honest. I don't know him this way."

"Sooner or later he's gonna talk to you, Gina, I'm sure. He came here 'cause he trusts you and wants your help, so he's gonna tell you what happened." Suddenly Derek smiled: "When you worry 'bout him you treat him as though he'd be your child, do you know that?"

Gina said nothing.

"No, I don't wanna tease you", Derek calmed her, interpreting her silence exactly the right way. "I don't mean any harm. Philip likes it how you're treatin' him, otherwise he wouldn't come to you each time he's got a problem."

Gina sighed once more. "I just hope I'm gonna be able to help him this time again. He's bloody shocked. I've never seen him that done in before!" Thoughtfully she shook her head. "What the hell happened last night?"

Derek bent forward and gripped his daughter's hands. "We're gonna hear about it, Gina. And we're gonna help Philip coping with it – whatever it might have been." He leaned back and drew a deep breath. "But I've never seen him that done in either", he added quietly.


End file.
